ROAD MARKER HONORS CHESAPEAKE INDIANS

The highest natural ground in the city is a 30-foot bluff on the south shore of Broad Bay, across the water from First Landing State Park.

It was here, where the Pleistocene-era landform known as the Pungo Ridge crests in today's Great Neck, that much of the region's native population lived - and died - before the arrival of Europeans.

In 1980, the city's residential building boom reached the undeveloped wooded ridge. Richard Fleming's parents were the first to build there.

Fleming, then 26, was back from college that summer with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. He unearthed Indian artifacts as builders started construction on his parents' waterfront house. Pottery shards, a trash pit, and then, bones. He called state archaeologists who would later describe the site as one of the most significant in the Mid-Atlantic.

"There's a burial about right here," Fleming said Wednesday, pointing down at the backyard deck on the home he now owns. "That window over there," he said pointing to a corner bedroom, "they found a burial while excavating the footings."

Inside the house, he rummaged around, finding two black-and-white photos. In one, a full body skeleton, immaculately preserved in its grave, lies face up. In the other, a partially crushed skull is depicted in profile. Fleming guessed it was damaged by construction machinery.

In all, archaeologists found the remains of 64 people. Some bodies were clad in copper bracelets and beads. Before Fleming's discoveries, amateurs also dug around the site. A Norfolk man named Floyd Painter in 1981 found a body he called the "King of Great Neck." It was adorned with 30,000 beads, he wrote.

Archaeologists determined the bones were those of the Chesapeake Indians, who were massacred by the Powhatan tribe about the same time Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607.

The bones spent years in a government office in Richmond before members of the Nansemond tribe, led by former Chief Oliver L. Perry, persuaded state officials to return them home - or at least close.

In 1997, the remains of the 64 Chesapeake Indians were buried across the water in First Landing State Park. A grassy mound surrounded by a split-rail fence marks the spot.

On Wednesday, state officials recognized the Chesapeakes with the dedication of a historic road marker to commemorate the tribe. The marker will be installed this year on Thomas Bishop Lane, the road Fleming lives on.

Today, the street is home to small mansions with commanding views of Broad Bay, well-manicured lawns and expensive cars in the driveways.

In the time of the Chesapeakes, the tidal flats and brackish marshlands provided the tribe oysters, crabs and fish. Deer roamed in dense forests, and the natives grew blueberries, strawberries and hickory nuts.

"They didn't just live here," said Fred Hazelwood, First Landing State Park manager. "They thrived here."

The sign dedication was a reunion of sorts for archaeologists who worked at the site they call "VB7." For many, the work they did there was a career highlight.

"I could have literally spent my entire life there," said Randolph Turner, a state Department of Historic Resources archaeologist who led a dig at the site. "It was just remarkable."